I Have Hope for Zion, but Is There Hope for Me?

I Have Hope for Zion, but Is There Hope for Me?
Psalm 102

Every morning when we wake up, my wife prays our morning prayers, and almost invariably she thanks God for another wonderful day. An hour later, I sit at my desk thinking about that day’s passage for The Old Testament for Everyone series. Today, the sun is shining, and I shall eat my breakfast outside in a little while. Tonight we will go to a bar to listen to Flat Top Tom and His Jump Cats, and I shall dance vigorously for the first time since I had surgery a little while ago (I have been needing to restrain myself for some weeks). There is great blessing on our personal life. Yet there is a contrast between that blessing and the state of the church, which is not “wonderful.” Churches in the West are in decline, though this is not the case elsewhere. At the present rate our own congregation will have ceased to exist in a decade or so. Against that background I pray each day for God to have mercy on the church in my home country and in my adoptive country, and I am struck by the contrast between God’s blessing of our personal life and God’s abandonment of his church...